Below is a screenshot of the 2014 upgrade version of my popular Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator sofware. Do you notice it’s actually an EXE (executable) file, and NOT an Excel workbook…even though it’s in Excel?! Users need not enable macros. Plus, it works on any Excel version (for Windows or Mac). All past buyers get it FREE!
Not many MS Excel experts, talk less users, will know how I converted (actually “compiled” is the word) my Excel-VB driven workbook into an EXE file.
I’ve read on many forums that it’s even impossible. :-))
Some of those who said this are respected, knowledgeable experts in the use of the MS Excel application, for software development.
A few referred to the use of Visual Basic 6 COM tools. But that’s too much hard work…or manual labour.
I own a copy of the Professional Excel Programming manual, and know what using VB6 to create EXE apps involves. Right from the first day I read it, I knew it was not something I’d readily settle for.
So I kept searching. Especially online.
You see, I always knew I would need to be able to convert my automated workbook applications to EXE versions. Mainly to secure my code (knowledgeable developers will tell you VBA password security is a joke. It can be cracked within seconds), and also deploy my apps more professionally.
The only reason I waited was that I wanted to have enough user feedback to incorporate as many valuable features into my software as possible.
Since 2004, I’ve been doing that with my Ration Formulator. Today I have had buyers from across Nigeria, and outside Nigeria/Africa. Some have been so forthcoming with feedback that they have helped improve the app’s functionality greatly!
Last Friday, a prospective buyer of the Ration Formulator who’d called me on phone, sent an email asking:
“Does the software work with a Mac laptop?”
I responded as follows:
“As long as you have a fully functional installation of MS Excel on your PS, my Excel apps will work on it without problems.”
(NB: I sent this response with every sense of responsibility. I’d done my homework by reviewing the features of MS Excel 2011 for Macintosh.)
He promptly sent this response:
“Ok. I’ll let you know when I make payment.”
And he did that the next day.
24 hours later, I sent him the latest (2013) upgrade version of the app.
The next day he sent me a screenshot showing a compile error, that popped up when the app was opening in MS Excel on his laptop.
After thinking about it a while, I recalled that I’d introduced the use of API calls in the 2013 upgrade of the app, to enable use of modeless forms. It was the only change I’d made without considering the MS Excel 2011 for Mac, that I did to the application.
Here’s the reply I sent to him(with the above screenshot image of the new EXE version of the Ration Formulator):
He wrote back to say “thanks”. (And tonight, I’ll be sending him the promised modified version to see if it will run OK.)
Your (or Your Company’s) Important MS Excel Workbooks Can Be Converted to Secure, & Even Income Generating EXE Versions!
I’ve seen various ways companies put spreadsheets to use. From my time in paid employment (over 7 years), as well as the ten years I’ve been a spreadsheet solutions developer for client companies.
Many of those workbooks contain years of hard work from collaborative efforts of highly skilled persons.
They build complex formulas to generate valuable performance indicators for reliable decision making. Most times off-the-shelf apps that can offer similar customized reporting output are impossible to find.
And that’s why it makes great sense for such individuals/businesses to protect them as EXE files!
One example…
Back in 2009, I was contacted by the expatriate regional project manager for a well known petroleum exploration company.
He’d found my Excel-VB Solutions Development website, while “Googling” online for an Excel expert in Nigeria. I was still based in Lagos, Nigeria, at the time.
After a face to face meeting in Ikeja, he eventually invited me to their Freeman house office on Lagos Island, for a meeting with the head of the finance section, and his assistant.
They proceeded to show me a massive, and complex, tax computation workbook application.
It was about 45MB in size!
They wanted me to rebuild for easy comprehension by less Excel-competent users. The person who’d built it had left.
Long story short, I told them what needed to be done, and how I proposed we proceed. The next day they called to inform me they were pleased and wanted me to start work.
But I never did go on to do that project…because we could not agree on when my first payment would happen.
I wanted a one-third advance retainer. They wanted to pay me from the third week after I’d started work.
The point I’m however making is that if they had in-house Excel-VB programming expertise, they would have been better off.
Coupled with the know-how to convert the modified app to EXE version, they could even have made a product that could even be licensed to other companies. Especially considering it was a tax computation workbook!
But then again this is an oil service company we’re talking about. They probably did not need the money!
Having said that, I believe they would still have appreciated the extra security of having such a sensitive workbook in EXE form.
It would be impossible to illegally view the formulas or copy them or the code in it.
But they would still be able to post data, and save changes made to the data, in the EXE version!
If you’re a financial consultant, tax expert, or a professional who builds complex workbooks (E.g. quantity surveyor) for your work, this should interest you.
If you’d like to learn more about how to convert useful MS Excel workbooks you built, into such EXE versions that you can even sell…
Like REAL professional software, complete with installation routines, contact me for details….
I’ll send you details of the amazing features and functions you can get!
You probably already have a specially built workbook you use to quickly compute personal income taxes for client employees.
Or to generate payslips, or to compute company taxes, profit and loss reports etc.
The solution I refer to can help you convert your workbook into an EXE version you can sell to clients, or other consultants, and earn even more money!
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